


Revelation

by Cipheral (MemoriumOracle)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Alien Keith (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Big Reveal, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gay Keith, Keith has panic attacks, Keith needs to find his family, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sharing a Bed, Space Dorks, Tags Are Hard, Tags Contain Spoilers, finding closure, fuck the preview ruining my headcanons, just a warning, klance, post episode 11
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-07-27 14:44:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7622749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MemoriumOracle/pseuds/Cipheral
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started off as a fun vacation for the team after being shot through an unstable wormhole back to earth, but it quickly turned bad as Lance found something out about Keith that he probably shouldn't have known. How will this revelation affect the team? How will it affect how the two see each other...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very long chapter, and it's probably not even going to be the longest one. Anyway, thanks for checking out my fic! You can find me on tumblr [@keithspeaks](http://keithspeaks.tumblr.com/)!

The unstable wormhole jump had left everyone shaken. Spit out of the wormhole, the Voltron crew were scattered about on the floor, thrown about by the violent tremors that went through the ship as it was tossed into the calm emptiness of space.

 

Shiro was the first to stand up. He brushed off his outfit and stepped towards the control area where Allura was standing up, holding onto the main panel for leverage and support. “Where are we?” he asked, taking a few steps forwards.

 

Allura shook her head. “I have no idea. Once everyone is up and stable again, I'll pull up the galaxy map,” she said, tapping bringing up windows on the control board, “First, though, I need to check if anything was damaged in the jump.”

 

Looking around the room, the two couldn't help but laugh at how everyone had fallen. Pidge had all but flown across the room from their previous position, seemingly being what had knocked Hunk off balance and caused him to fall over. Coran had toppled over the edge of the platform, his feet sticking up in the air, legs bent in a way that made him seem broken. By far the funniest though, were Lance and Keith. Lance had fallen directly into Keith, face at his collar, hands tucked behind Keith's head, as if he had tried to protect the other from the impact. The pair were tangled together, eyes closed tight, both taking quick, shallow breaths that had slowly begun to even out.

 

Coran was the next to stand. Untangling himself, he made his way to where Shiro and Allura were, looking down at the panel, eyebrows raising. “A bit of exterior damage, and one broken pipe down near the lions, as well as a bit of technical damage in the AI room,” he mumbled.

 

Allura nodded in response. “It definitely isn't as bad as it seems, but depending on which pipe it is, it could lead to some problems. The broken pipe should be our priority, followed by fixing the AI. We don't want a repeat of the whole corrupted system situation,” she said to the other Altean, tapping away at a few things on the console.

 

“What was that about a technical problem?” Pidge called from the other side of the room, getting up with a wince. They made their way over the group by the control panel that was steadily growing. “I could probably take care of it, if I have someone to translate the Altean writing,” they said.

 

“Then I'll have Coran do that for you Pidge. We're just waiting on everyone to get up and come over here, so we can find out where exactly we are,” Allura smiled at the small paladin.

 

“Give me just a second and I can have them all up in a matter of seconds,” Pidge replied, a devilish smirk on their lips.

 

“Pidge...” Shiro warned, a reprimanding look on his face as he glanced down at them.

 

“What?” they said, “We need them up and I know how to get them all up easily.”

 

Knowing that there was no way to stop the little imp of a pilot, Shiro let out a resigned sigh, closing his eyes. He didn't want to see what they had in plan for poor Lance and Keith...

 

First, Pidge went over to Hunk, leaned down next to his ear and whispered, “The kitchen is a complete mess,” causing the other to jump up in a sweat, looking absolutely horrified.

 

“Pidge, you had better be joking,” Hunk said, “Please be joking.”

 

They nodded. “Well, from the knowledge that I have, I'm joking. It could be though. The ship did take a bit of a beating on its way out of the wormhole,” they replied, smiling pleasantly.

 

With a relieved sigh, Hunk went over to the group by the control panel. All of them were now watching with interest and apprehension as Pidge approached Lance and Keith, both of which still had their eyes shut tight.

 

All Pidge had to say was “You look like you kissed each other in the fall” before the two of them all but shot apart, standing on opposite sides of the room faster than should have been humanly possible, both with beet red faces.

 

“Well, that wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be,” Shiro admitted with a small shrug, watching the green paladin walk smugly back to the group.

 

“What can I say? I know what to say to get people to move,” Pidge admitted, still smirking.

 

Lance pointed at the smallest in the room, looking very embarrassed and angry. “This is why I am terrified of Pidge. I swear, you are way too perceptive,” he all but yelled.

 

“Both of you get over here,” Allura called out, “It's time to see just where we are...”

 

The two paladins mad their way over to the control panel, looking far too uncomfortable around each other after Pidge's comment. They stood on opposite sides of the platform, avoiding eye contact with each other as Allura brought up the holographic map of the universe. It moved around until it located them. When Allura read out the name of the nearest planet, Lance let out an excited yell.

 

The rest of the reactions came a few seconds later. Hunk started crying a bit, Pidge let out a strangled yelp, and Shiro gasped. Upon not getting a reaction from Keith, Lance's earlier awkwardness was completely forgotten.

 

“Aren't you excited?!” he yelled, a wide grin on his face, and a light in his eyes that hadn't been there since they had left on their mission to save the universe. “We're in our solar system! _We're so close to being home!_ ”

 

Keith shrugged, averting his eyes from everyone else. He was looking into the hologram, eyes fixated on a planet that nobody seemed to even think noticeable. “Yeah, it's kinda neat that we were spit back out in our solar system, but it probably would have happened some time sooner or later,” he commented offhandedly, “I mean, it even seemed kind of predictable this time.”

 

“How did this seem predictable?” Lance asked, bypassing angry and bordering on furious, “This was a damn miracle, Keith. We were in an unstable wormhole that could have spit us into a fiery inferno of death, but instead spit us into our own solar system, just a couple planets away from Earth. How the hell was this predictable?”

 

Keith shook his head. “You wouldn't get it,” he said simply, “It's the simple fact of who we are. We're supposed to be the defenders of the universe, and I'm pretty damn sure that fate, or whatever you want to call it, knows that fact, and wouldn't just leave the universe at the hands of Zarkon.”

 

Lance threw his hands in the air, exasperated at the situation. He didn't even reply to Keith, and simply walked out of the room, calling a “Well, I'm taking Blue home for a bit!” before the door slid shut again.

 

Shiro let out a sigh. “Once the repairs are done, we can all go back for a little while. I think it would do the team good if we were to go home for a couple of days,” he admitted, even if it seemed a bit regretful.

 

And so the team set to work. Shiro and Allura had caught up to Lance before he left and told him that they needed his help with working on the outer damage caused by the wormhole jump. With four working on the outer damage, one working on the broken pipe, and two working on the AI, the work got done fairly quickly. When the pipe and AI were fixed, Hunk, Pidge, and Coran went to help with fixing the outer damage. Shiro had to break up far too many arguments between Keith and Lance in the time they were out there, but once everything had been fixed, the two had worn themselves out too much to fight any more.

 

“Get a few hours rest, and we'll all go once everyone is up,” Shiro said. Then, turning to Allura, asked, “Could we be flown closer to Earth in the few hours everyone is asleep?”

 

The Altean princess nodded. “I don't see why not. It will make it easier to go there and come back,” she said with a shrug.

 

Turning back to the team Shiro clapped his hands, getting their attention. “Alright everyone, get a good rest, then, tomorrow we'll go down to earth for a visit,” he said, earning a few nods and a grateful, tired groan.

 

☼

 

It was a few hours after everyone had been sent off tho their rooms that Lance heard a knock on his door. He grunted out a dull “It's open” before the door slid open, Shiro stepping in. Lance rolled over, facing the open room, sliding his eye mask off his face. Sitting up, he let out a long yawn before asking, “What's up, Shiro?”

 

The older paladin let out a light chuckle at the younger, shaking his head. “I just wanted to tell you something,well, ask you something, and I don't know how okay with it you're going to be, but I need you to at least consider what it is I'm going to say, okay?” he said simply.

 

More alert now, Lance nodded. “Yeah, alright. What is it though?” he asked.

 

Shiro took a deep breath before speaking. “I don't think Keith has a family on Earth,” he started, holding up a hand to stop Lance from cutting him off, “and if it turns out that he actually doesn't, I want you to... show him your family, I guess; make him feel included in something.”

 

Lance was a bit taken aback by this request. Of course he would do that if Shiro wanted him to, but would Keith even want to go with him? He couldn't just force him to come with him. Either way, how would Lance's family react to Lance showing up as friends with the guy he had been complaining about to them? They would be a bit shocked to say the least.

 

After a couple moments of consideration, Lance answered: “If he'll come with me, then sure.”

 

“Thanks, Lance. I don't want him to be on the ship brooding and bothering Allura and Coran, so if he won't go with you, I'll try to get him to come with me,” Shiro grinned.

 

Right before Shiro left the room, Lance called out, stopping him. “Why did you ask me this though, if you were willing to bring him with you?” he asked.

 

The scarred paladin smiled in a way that almost seemed pityingly. “You have a larger family. More people means that he probably won't feel as... isolated. Not only that, from what you've told me about your family, they're very friendly and welcoming,” he explained, “There is one other reason, but that isn't my information to disclose. Sleep well, Lance.”

 

With that, Shiro left the room, leaving Lance to his own thoughts. What was that last thing about? What was the other reason that Shiro couldn't tell him? Shaking his head to clear his mind for the time being, Lance lay back down, putting his eye mask back on, and falling asleep almost immediately.

 

☼

 

When everyone was up, Shiro called a meeting. The paladins gathered around, all shuffling with excitement. All but Keith that is, and Lance took note of that. He couldn't help but think about what Shiro had told him before, feeling an odd pang in his chest. Realizing that he hadn't heard any of what Shiro had been saying, Lance shook his head, redirecting focus to their leader.

 

“- in any case, Keith, I want you to go with Lance, since you've expressed to me that you don't want to visit any of your relatives on Earth,” Shiro was saying, looking directly at the person who had taken Lance's focus for the last few minutes.

 

Once again, Lance looked over at Keith, watching him shrug indifferently at the request. He hated to admit it, but seeing such an... apathetic response upset him a little. Without any more discussion, the others nodded, each heading off to their own lion, and then to their own families.

 

As Lance and Keith made their way to the blue lion, there was a tense silence around them. This wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence, but it seemed different this time. The entire way to the lion and for the first couple minutes in the giant robot, neither spoke. After some time though, Keith spoke up.

 

“So, I'm about to meet your family,” he said, sounding a bit nervous.

 

“Yup,” Lance replied shortly.

 

Lance heard Keith fidget a little bit and prepared for a question.

 

“I've... never met my family, so this is going to be a bit of an experience.”

 

Whipping his head to look at Keith, Lance's eyes were open wide in shock. He had been prepared for a question about his family, but this had caught him terribly off guard.

 

“You've... never met your family?” Lance asked, turning back to face the front.

 

Keith shook his head, “Nope... not that I remember at least. I may have known them when I was really young, but I've forgotten them over time,” he replied, sounding a bit out of place.

 

This was a shock to Lance. Keith Kogane had never met his family, and he was telling Lance, someone who he had never gotten along with, this very personal fact. Once again, Lance felt a pang in his chest. He hated when he got that feeling, that violent hit of emotion. He hated that he knew what it meant, and he hated that he knew that it would never be returned. In short, Lance hated unrequited pining.

 

Whenever Keith did something like this, letting him know something personal or even doing something personal (though that was extremely rare), Lance felt himself being drawn in even closer to the feelings he had for the shorter paladin. And he hated when that happened, because there was no way that his feelings could be mutual.

 

Mustering up some courage as well as trying to make sure his voice didn't crack, he finally replied. “Well, if you want, we could try to find them again,” he said, terrified that he had said the wrong thing and had just ruined this trip before it had truly even began.

 

“...I really appreciate the thought, but I doubt that I could do that. It's been too long, and I'm honestly fine without meeting them again. If they had had to put me up for adoption when I was that young, for whatever reason, then clearly they weren't ready to have me. Hell, for all I know, they could even be dead,” Keith said, his voice low, “I don't hold anything against them. I know that they loved me, and that they did what they had to so that all of us were living life to the best we could. I know that they didn't do what they did out of hatred or spite.”

 

How the hell could Keith be this composed? Lance blinked tears out of the corners of his eyes, and swallowed the lump in his throat just as they entered Earth's atmosphere. Through the horrible turbulence, Lance couldn't help but wonder how Keith was so certain about all of this. How did he not even harbour the slightest grudge against the parents who, Lance felt, abandoned him? He shook his head in confusion. Keith Kogane was a mystery to him that would never be solved.

 

Keith let out a small gasp as the two passed through the layer of cloud to see sparkling blue water and lush green forests in the distance. “Where are we even?” he asked, leaning forward to see better.

 

Glancing down at the GPS system on the dash, Lance smiled. “From what the GPS tells me, the island up ahead is a part of Hawaii,” he replied, speeding the lion up.

 

“So we should be where we need to be soon?”

 

“Less than five minutes if we keep this pace up.”

 

The rest of the way the two were silent, watching cities and town roll by underneath them. Lance had been correct when he said that it would take less than five minutes to get to their destination. Landing Blue in a nearby forest, Lance got out the Speeder, each grabbing their own bag and climbing on before they took off through the forest. Green and brown blurred past them as they zipped out of the wooded area and to the street. Going at a slower pace, the two travelled to Lance's home, parking the speeder behind his mother's sedan.

 

The house wasn't anything too extravagant, but it was bigger than most of the other houses on the street, thanks to the large family that lived there. All of the outer trim was painted a glossy white, sun shining off of the metal that showed through a couple of chips. Blue panelling covered most of the outer walls, while the area around the door was basic red brick. The grass was lush and cut, a few toys lying about in the front. There were a couple of bikes leaning against the garage door, which was painted white like the trim.

 

“So this is where you lived before you went to the Garrison...” Keith mumbled, not so much asking it as simply stating it to himself.

 

With a nod, Lance went to the door and knocked on it. It took less than ten seconds for the door to open, a young child standing in the doorway. “Lance?” they asked, confused, before they realized that, yes, it was Lance standing there, “Lance! Mama, Lance is back!”

 

Lance picked the child up, a huge smile on his face. “Yeah, I'm back! It's just going to be for a bit though, since I do have really important things to do,” Lance answered, balancing the young child on his hip. “Keith, this is my younger brother, Elliot. Elliot, this is Keith.”

 

Elliot gave Keith a wide grin, earning a chuckle from Lance.

 

From deeper inside the house, a few more children called out. Suddenly, there were two more children, and a younger teen standing at the doorway.

 

“Lance!” the teen yelled, taking a step forward to hug their brother before realizing that he was holding Elliot and stopping. “Holy crap where have you been?”

 

With a laugh, Lance set the excited Elliot down, turning to hug his other sibling. “Well, I _was_ at the Garrison for a while, then some wild shit happened and now I'm here!” he exclaimed, pulling away. “Keith these are my siblings. The smaller two are the twins, Kim and Jamie. Jamie's the one in green and Kim is the one in the bee costume. And this is my sister, Calypso. Everyone, this is Keith.”

 

“Keith, huh?” Calypso walked over to him, inspecting him, “You two dating or something?”

 

Both of them choked, vehemently denying it and shaking their heads. Calypso turned back to Lance and raised an eyebrow at him, indicating that the two of them would be talking about this later.

 

“Anyway... come on, let go say hi to my mom,” Lance said, motioning for Keith to follow him.

 

Lance led them down the hall way and into the kitchen, where his father was preparing dinner. He looked over at Keith and held a finger up to his lips, indicating to be quiet, before sneaking up on his father and practically jumping on him.

 

“Lance! Don't scare your father like that when he's making dinner!” a woman said from behind them in the doorway.

 

“Sorry mom!” he said, letting go of his laughing father. “I'm home, at least for a little while!”

 

“We can see that, Lance. Next time, don't almost make me cut off my finger,” his father said, putting down the knife that he had been holding. “It's great to have you back, Lance. We missed you.”

 

“Who's your friend here?” his mother asked, walking over and putting a hand on Keith's shoulder. Lance noticed Keith immediately tense up.

 

“That's Keith. I've already introduced him to the younger ones. Is Theo home?” Lance asked, subtly moving Keith over to stand next to him.

 

“Theo is home, actually. Not right this minute, though. Right now he's out shopping with Isabella,” Lance's mother said, “It's a pleasure to meet you Keith. I'm Ruby McClain, but you can just call me Ruby, if you'd like. Lance's father is Victor, and I doubt that he would have any problems with you calling him that.”

 

Victor shook his head, “No problems at all.”

 

Keith just nodded awkwardly.

 

“Anyway... I'm going to show Keith around the house,” Lance said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Ready to see what my place really looks like?”

 

Once again, Keith just nodded, albeit with less awkwardness than before.

 

The two walked out of the kitchen, and down to the basement.

 

“Prepare to be amazed,” was all Lance said before opening a door at the bottom of the stairs to reveal a bedroom that took up what was probably about ninety percent of the entire basement. A queen sized bed sat in the far corner, a ridiculous pile of pillows at the head and thick comforters folded neatly at the bottom. Beanbag chairs were placed in the middle of the room, a black coffee table in front of them, and a flat screen T.V mounted to the wall in front of it all. A large floor mat covered a majority of the dark, hardwood floors, and posters were scattered around on the deep blue walls. Beside the door, there were a couple of bookshelves. The top shelves held a few decoration that included a glass snoopy dog piggy bank, a globe that looked to be a spherical puzzle, and a small, wooden tiki doll. The middle two shelves had what to be nearly every movie in existence, and the bottom two shelves had books of every genre. Hardcover, paperback, fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, action, romance, you name it, it probably had a spot on those shelves.

 

“Well? What do you think?” Lance asked, looking at Keith expectantly.

 

“It's... not exactly what I expected, honestly. Plus there are like three doors on that wall, and I'm not sure I want to know where they all go.

 

“Au contraire, my friend-”

 

“I thought you were Spanish, not french.”

 

“Those doors lead to more awesome stuff. That first one, that just leads to the boiler room, so it really isn't that cool, but the second one leads to...” Lance threw the door open to reveal a walk in closet. “My closet. And the third one...” He threw open the third door. “Leads to my en-suite.”

 

“How rich is your family, what the fuck?” Keith asked, looking at the two smaller rooms incredulously.

 

“I really don't know, but I'd think it's more than middle class,” Lance replied bluntly.

 

“No shit...” Keith whispered.

 

“Since Theo is home, he's staying in the guest room with Isabella, and that means that you're going to be stuck down here with me,” Lance said, tossing his bag into his closet and closing the door. “And we don't have a futon or anything like that... I just realized what that means and I think I want to lock myself in the walk in closet.”

 

“I was going to make a coming out joke but I think it would be lost on you,” Keith said simply.

 

“It very much wouldn't be, since I am bisexual,” Lance turned and gave Keith a look.

 

“Good to know. Are you going to show me around your house or not, though?”

 

Lance was a bit taken aback from the nonchalant reaction. “Wait, you're not, like, bothered by that?” he asked, confused.

 

“Why would I be bothered by that when I'm gay?” Keith asked in return, hands on his hips and eyebrows quirked.

 

“I guess you wouldn't be,” Lance shrugged, “Wait, really?”

 

Keith nodded slowly. “This better not make things weirder than they already are.”

 

Lance shook his head, “Nah man. Nothing's going to change.”

 

With that the two of them left Lance's room, starting the tour of the house.

 

The main level had the kitchen, living and dining rooms, as well as a small bathroom. It was open-concept so it felt larger than it really was. Upstairs consisted of Calypso's room on the far end of the hall, Mr, and Mrs. McClain's room next to that, the guest room, the bathroom, Elliot's room, then the twins' room, on the opposite end of the hall from Calypso's.

 

Out in the backyard, there was a small park; one of the one's that you could buy from Walmart or Toys 'R Us, a shed, and a small gated area that was the family's garden. The kids weren't allowed to take things from it, but that never stopped Lance.

 

“Now that you've seen the house, want to check out the neighbourhood?” Lance asked as they sat on the front step, each eating an ice cream cone.

 

Keith shrugged. “I don't see how that's a bad idea. If I'm going to be around here for a little while, I may as well know the area,” he said, taking a bit of the ice cream.

 

Lance grimaced. “Dude, how can you _bite ice cream_? How are your teeth not frozen solid?”he asked, nibbling at the cone of his.

 

“How can you not? That's weak, man. Just bite it,” Keith said, shoving him playfully.

 

Taking a deep breath and shooting Keith a look, Lance took a bit of his ice cream... and promptly leaned over the edge of the step to spit it out. “How do you do that without dying?” he practically screamed, hand covering his mouth and touching his cheek.

 

Keith was laughing too hard to answer, doubled over and almost tipping his ice cream cone upside down. Lance felt his heart skip a beat, seeing Keith like this, because of him. A tiny smile spread across Lance's lips, but he had banished it by the time Keith had calmed down enough to look at Lance, wearing a small pout instead.

 

“Are your teeth seriously that sensitive?” Keith asked, wiping his eyes, still grinning.

 

“The average human has teeth like mine, so don't get full of yourself on that one,” Lance retorted, furrowing his eyebrows and waving his cone at Keith.

 

Getting up, Lance stretched himself out and walked to the end of the path. “Are you coming?” he questioned, waiting for Keith to follow him. “I thought we were going to go on a tour of the neighbourhood.”

 

Keith sighed and got up, stretching as he walked over to Lance. “I thought we were going to finish these first...” he mumbled.

 

“We can eat as we walk.”

 

And so they went. Lance pointed out who loved where, and where certain roads led to. There was a dog park, a community pool and splash pad, and a couple small stores closer to the main road. They turned down another side street and walked for a while, Keith occasionally asking questions about the neighbourhood, and Lance answering them before continuing on in describing where to go to get to what you wanted. Their final stop was at a park. It was brightly coloured, with monkey bars, swings, and a few differently sized slides.

 

“And this is Grover's Park. When I was younger I broke my leg after falling off the swing set,” Lance said fondly, walking over to the main play-structure. “Ah the times I've injured myself at this park are many.”

 

“Does this mean I'm responsible for calling your mom if you break your arm on the monkey bars?” Keith replied, following Lance and climbing up on top of the monkey bars, hooking his legs and manoeuvring so that he was hanging upside down, facing Lance.

 

Lance scoffed, walking over so that the two of them were face to face, “If anyone's going to break their arm on the monkey bars, I have a feeling it's going to be you.”

 

“You see though, I know what I'm doing and how to hold myself so I don't get a head rush when I right myself on the ground,” Keith said, smirking.

 

“No head rush doesn't mean no broken bones though,” Lance retorted, poking Keith's nose, to which Keith stuck his tongue out.

 

Pulling himself back up onto the monkey bars, Keith hung his feet down through the gaps and swung them back and forth, almost kicking Lance in the head a few times.

 

After a few moments in silence, Lance spoke up. “I bet I can go higher than you on the swings,” he taunted, smirking up at Keith.

 

The black haired paladin jumped down, landing neatly on his feet before taking off towards the swings, Lance on his heels.

 

Their competitions didn't stop at the swings. They tested to see who could hang upside down longer, who could go across the monkey bars faster, and even who could go down the mini slides faster. Once they tired themselves out, the sun had begun to set, leaving the two laying on their backs in the sand, watching the few clouds roll by overhead.

 

“We should probably head back soon. I've got a feeling dinner is ready,” Lance said, pushing himself off of the ground with a grunt.

 

Keith nodded. “I'm not going to lie. I found today pretty fun. It was a nice break from all that space junk at least,” he said, standing smoothly, “Like seriously. I'm really glad that we're getting this break from being the defenders of the Universe.”

 

Lance nodded as they began to make their way back to Lance's home. “As much as I love all of that, it gets stressful, and I'd be lying if I said that space isn't a bit lonely, even with all of the aliens,” he replied.

 

The rest of their walk back was in a comfortable silence. It wasn't something that often happened between the two of them, and they were relishing it for once. It had been a long time since they had been this relaxed, especially alone together.

 

☼

 

Dinner with other people was something that Keith had gotten used to while on the Castle of the Lions, but this was on a whole different level. The table was packed with people, and covered in plates of food. He was sitting next to Lance near the end of the table, the two of them being the last to arrive to the meal.

 

“Keith, you haven't met Theo yet, have you?” Mrs. McClain asked, gesturing to a man that Keith assumed was Theo. “Theo is Lance's older brother, and Isabella is his wife.”

 

“It's nice to meet you, Keith,” Theo said with a nod, holding his hand out for Keith to shake.

 

Keith hesitated for a second before taking it and shaking it, a slightly nervous smile on his face.

 

After that, dinner began. Everyone was talking pleasantly, a few conversations going on at the same time. Keith kept his conversation limited to Lance for now, not exactly the most comfortable with the large group of people that he was sitting with.

 

Once everyone was finished eating, Isabella stood up. “I have an announcement,” she said. She looked over at Lance with a smile and said, “Lance is going to be an uncle.”

 

It was Ruby's turn to stand up, a huge smile on her face. She grabbed her daughter-in-law's hands and quietly asked, “You're pregnant?”

 

When Isabella nodded, the entire table started clapping and smiling brightly. Keith wasn't exactly sure what was happening, but he certainly was happy for the family gaining another member.

 

“Theo, why didn't you tell me earlier, you jerk!” Lance exclaimed, running around the table to punch his brother lightly in the arm.

 

“I wanted to have the whole family together, that's why,” Theo retorted, grabbing his younger brother in a headlock and giving him a noogie.

 

After a round of congratulations, Ruby brought the twins and Elliot upstairs to put them to bed, and Lance and Keith disappeared downstairs. Once away from all of the other people, Keith visibly relaxed. He couldn't stand being around that many energetic people for too long.

 

“You doing okay?” Lance asked, plopping down in one of the beanbag chairs.

 

Taking the other chair for himself, Keith let out a sigh. “Just a lot of activity for one day,” he said.

 

“Want to watch a movie or play video games?”

 

“Depends on what games you have.”

 

“Second shelf from the top on the shelf closest to the door has them, if you want to take a look,” Lance yawned, turning the T.V on and setting up his PS4.

 

With a little bit of effort, and as little laughing from Lance as possible, Keith eventually got out of the squishy confines of the bean bag chair and made his way to the bookshelf. After looking for a while, he decided on a blast from the past, pulling out a case and throwing it at Lance.

 

The brunette raised an eyebrow at the game choice. “Starfox Zero? Really Keith?” he questioned.

 

Keith shrugged. “I thought it would be kind of ironic since everyone argues over how the lasers sound, and this game has lasers and PVP so...” he trailed off.

 

“I honestly never thought of that. Now we can see who really was right...” Lance mumbled as he put the disk into the console.

 

The next three hours were spent with them yelling at each other, shooting the others' avatar with lasers, and falling out of the beanbag chairs. They only stopped when Ruby came downstairs and told them that it was nearing midnight, and that they should quiet down. Both knew that if they kept playing they would just make more noise, so they shut the console down and put on a movie instead.

 

They're night seemed to be space themed, since the two mutually decided to watch the first in the Star Wars series after Lance yelled in outrage when he found out Keith hadn't seen it.

 

“I've always been more of a Trekkie, if I'm going to be honest about it,” Keith said with a shrug.

 

At some point they had migrated from the chairs to the floor, each covered in a blanket. Before they had put the movie on, Lance had sneaked upstairs to get them chips and popcorn. During that time, Keith had taken the opportunity to change into pyjamas.

 

By the end of the movie, there were no chips left, and the popcorn bowl had been spilled all over the floor, and both of the paladins.

 

“What did you think of the movie?” Lance asked, “Wasn't it great? The series gets better the long it goes on; it goes more in-depth into different things that I don't want to spoil for you.”

 

“It was pretty good, I can't deny that,” Keith replied, “but I still prefer Star Trek.”

 

“Star Wars has a better plot,” Lance retorted, brushing popcorn off himself as he got up.

 

“Whatever you say...” Keith mumbled, doing the same. “Should we clean this up before going to sleep?”

 

“Nah, we'll do it in the morning,” Lance said, crawling into bed.

 

Keith sat on the floor, not exactly sure what to do now. He knew that they were going to be sharing the bed, but that didn't mean he wanted to.

 

“Get in the bed, Keith, and go to sleep. I'm guaranteeing that my mother is going to wake us up early, so you're going to want as much sleep as you can get,” Lance grumbled, sitting up and giving Keith a strange look.

 

With a sigh of defeat, the black haired paladin climbed into the bed on the side closer to the wall, facing away from Lance. Lance reached up and flicked a light switch above the bedside table, plunging the room into darkness. Keith looked up at the ceiling and let out a quiet gasp. The entire ceiling had paintings of the constellations, looking like the night sky so far above them.

 

“My mom painted those,” Lance mumbled, and not a minute later, his breathing evened out, signalling that he had fallen asleep.

 

Keith tried his best to fall asleep, but he just couldn't get comfortable. That is, until Lance rolled over in his sleep and wrapped an arm around his waist. Keith's entire body stiffened for a minute before he found himself pressing back against the warmth that Lance was emitting. Not thinking about how this was going to end in the morning, Keith fell soundly asleep, the most comfortable he had been in a long time.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, there is a slight possible trigger in this chapter. Keith has a panic attack, so if you're bothered by that... I guess just message me and I can give you an overview of the chapter.
> 
> I still have my tumblr [@keithspeaks](keithspeaks.tumblr.com) so if you have any questions or whatnot, shoot me a message on there.

When Lance woke up, he certainly wasn't expecting to have his face in someone's hair. Not thinking about it, nuzzled closer, enjoying the warmth and the smell. The night before started to come back to him as he did this. When he realized who's hair he was nuzzling, his eyes shot open and he almost screamed before realizing that Keith was probably still asleep.

 

He tried to slide away from the other, only to find that Keith was facing him, and he was being held onto. With a resigned sigh, Lance began to carefully pry Keith off of him, only to be pulled closer by the sleeping paladin. So Keith is a sleep cuddler... that is definitely something that Lance appreciated knowing. Resigning himself to the comfortable embrace of his crush, Lance let himself doze off once again.

 

☼

 

The first thing Keith was aware of when he gained consciousness was the smell of pines and the ocean breeze. He was confused for a minute before remembering that he was back on Earth, and at Lance's house. Blearily blinking his eyes open, all he could see was a light brown fabric. Pulling his head back and going cross-eyed, he realized what had happened.

 

Quickly scooting away from Lance, the arm that had been around his back falling onto the bed, Keith backed himself up against the wall, looking around the room in a minor panic. He had remembered that Lance had cuddled up to him in his sleep, but he definitely did not remember him returning the action. It had been years since he had shared a bed with someone, if he ever even had, so learning that he was a sleep cuddler in this situation definitely wasn't his favourite way to figure that out.

 

Very carefully, Keith slowly edged along the wall to the end of the bed before quietly running to grab his bag and lock himself in the bathroom.

 

He sank down to the floor, back against the door and panting. He had no idea what to do in this situation. Keith coughed, not realizing that he had been holding his breath. Once he had stopped, he started to take slow, deep breaths to help him keep calm.

 

A few minutes later when he felt that he had finally calmed his heart rate and breathing, he stood up and began to get changed into his clothes.

 

When he stepped out of the bathroom, he screamed. He found himself standing face-to-face with a messy, morning-haired Lance. And he liked how Lance looked.

 

Lance glanced him up and down and gave him a look. “Are you seriously going to wear the same thing as yesterday?” he asked.

 

Keith shrugged. “It's kind of the only thing I brought with me into space, so, yeah,” he replied.

 

“It's settled then. Today we're going out to get you some more clothes to wear,” Lance said, the two trading places so that Keith was the one standing outside of the bathroom. “And you have no say in that. Until then though, just find something of mine that'll fit you.”

 

With that, Lance closed the bathroom door, leaving Keith standing there in his confusion. Awkwardly, he went over to the closet and opened the door.

 

“What the hell, Lance? Why can I not just wear this until I get my own clothes...” he mumbled, looking through a rack of shirts. With a shake of his head, he pulled out a basic button up and jacket. Looking at the pants, he thought of how tall Lance was before deciding that they definitely wouldn't fit him and changing his shirt.

 

When he stepped out of the walk-in closet, a low whistle came from where the bathroom door was. Looking over he saw Lance nodding. “You clean up nice,” the brunet commented.

 

Keith rolled his eyes, already tired with the day, and it had barely even started. “I still don't understand why I can't just wear my own clothes,” he grumbled, walking over to the beanbag chairs and collapsing into one of them.

 

“Because if you wear the same thing two days in a row, people will question it,” Lance replied, taking a seat in the other beanbag chair.

 

“Lance we have literally worn the same thing for months because we were in space and nobody fucking cared.”

 

“Yes, but that was space. We're on Earth now, Keith, and we need to actually look like we give a shit about our appearance. For example, we need to go and get food to eat for breakfast.”

 

“How does breakfast have anything to do with our appearance?”

 

With a shrug Lance got up again, walked over and grabbed Keith by the arm. He then proceeded to drag the black-haired paladin towards the door and to the stairs. At the stairs, Keith tugged his arm out of the others' grasp and stood up, not wanting to be dragged up the stairs.

 

Making their way up to the kitchen, the pair were almost bowled over by Lance's younger siblings. Lance swooped and picked up Elliot as he ran by, carrying him into the kitchen and setting him on the counter so he was sitting at the corner. This gave Keith an idea he was either going to regret horribly, or make him cheer.

 

“What should we make, Elliot?” he asked, opening the fridge and looking in it. Keith had taken up a spot on the counter next to Elliot, legs crossed at the knee. When Lance looked back to them, he froze, causing Keith to smirk a bit.

 

The shirt and jacket were definitely a good idea after all.

 

“What about pancakes?” the younger McClain said from beside Keith, not noticing the odd display in front of him.

 

Clearing his throat first, Lance nodded and gave a mumbled agreement, getting out the box of pancake mix from the cupboard as well as the milk and eggs from the fridge. Keith could tell that he was trying very hard to avoid looking at him at all costs, and slowly becoming frustrated with the situation.

 

“Could you maybe stop that?” Lance asked, shooting a glare at Keith, who raised his eyebrows.

 

“Stop what?” he replied innocently, leaning back a bit and tilting his head, small smirk still gracing his features.

 

Instead of answering, Lance just glared at him again and went back to making the pancakes. Once there was a small pile of them on the plate next to the stove, Keith jumped off the counter, helping Elliot down after him, and tried to figure out where the rest of the plates were. Looking to the younger McClain for help, he lifted him onto his shoulders and let him direct to the right cupboard. Out of the corner of his eye, Keith saw Lance smiling at the two of them, causing a small smile to spread across his own lips.

 

“You two look like a married couple,” Calypso said from the doorway. “It's gross and cute at the same time.”

 

Lance practically shrieked at her arrival, turning violently to face her and angrily pointing the spatula at her. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, seemingly trying to speak, before blushing brightly and going back to cooking.

 

Keith just shook his head and walked to the breakfast bar, Elliot still on his shoulders. The two of them set up the plates and Calypso brought over the cutlery for them, giving Keith a knowing look. He nodded at her in a silent confirmation.

 

“Don't tease him too much or else he'll short circuit,” she mumbled, walking out of the room.

 

“Little too late for that warning,” Keith called out as she left.

 

Lance, who was now serving the plates, gave him a confused look at that before shaking his head and mumbling “Actually, I don't want to know.”

 

Without responding, Keith set Elliot into the middle chair, taking a seat on the right of him as Lance took the left.

 

The rest of breakfast went by without much of a hassle, save for Keith causing Lance to walk directly into a wall by walking by and brushing their arms together. The true chaos started when Lance dragged him to the nearest mall, intent on making him get more clothes.

 

“Why did we have to come to the mall of all places?” Keith mumbled when they stepped through the doors, throwing them immediately into the pure hell that was the local mall. “There are plenty of clothing stores that aren't in malls, you know. Why couldn't we have gone to one of those instead?”

 

Lance sighed and tutted, throwing an arm over Keith's shoulders in what was probably supposed to be a pitying manner. “Keith, you poor, poor, soul. Malls are where the average teenager thrives. It's where our kind-”

 

“What the fuck does that even mean?”

 

“-gets to be free and have fun with minimal judgment. Not just that but also there's more clothes stores with minimal walking involved,” Lance said, not even acknowledging Keith's interruption.

 

“On the other hand, there is a lot more people in a much smaller space than if we were to just walk more,” Keith tried to reason, but his words fell on deaf ears as Lance withdrew his arm to grab his wrist and drag him around the first floor. Whether or not it was on purpose, Keith ended up grabbing onto Lance's hand and holding on for dear life. He had always hated dense crowds, and that hatred had only grown in the time that he had been in space.

 

Lance dragged him to multiple stores, piling his arms with clothes before sending him to the change room. Each outfit was turned down in the first store, and the second wasn't any better. By the third store, Keith felt his energy running dangerously low.

 

When he stepped out of the changing room for a third time, he aimed a glare at where Lance was, hoping that it would get him to hurry the hell up on this, only to find that Lance was nowhere to be seen. He looked around, feeling a bit of panic rise in his chest when he couldn't even find a glance of the other paladin. Telling himself to keep calm and that Lance probably just left to go grab more clothes, he turned to go back into the change room. As he did this though, someone grabbed his shoulder, and that was it. Keith dropped to the ground, eye shut tightly. Whoever had grabbed his shoulder still had their hand there, and was now using their thumb to rub small circles into the joint. A familiar voice called Keith's name, and somewhere in the back of his mind, he recognized that it was Lance talking to him, and it was also likely Lance's hand on his shoulder. Slowly, Keith began to relax, opening his eyes to see Lance crouched in front of him, a very concerned look on his face.

 

“Are you okay?” Lance asked, “You're shaking like a damn leaf...”

 

Keith tried to speak but ended up coughing. Lance gave him a small smile, knowing what it meant.

 

“Are you able to get up, or do you need to sit for a bit longer?” the brunet questioned, holding out his free hand for Keith to grab.

 

With a bit of effort and Lance's help, Keith pushed himself off the floor. His legs shook for a minute before buckling underneath him. Luckily, Lance had caught him before he hit the floor.

 

“Do you think that you'll be able to change into what you had on before?” Lance asked once he had steadied Keith.

 

With a nod, Keith walked shakily into the change room. He leaned heavily against the wall as he locked the door, then went and sat on the bench to change.

 

☼

 

When Keith opened the door to the change room, Lance let out a relieved sigh. That had been worrying to say the least. He didn't know that malls bothered Keith as much as they did, and he really regretted leaving without saying anything like that, but he really had needed the bathroom.

 

“You good?” Lance asked, walking over to meet him, seeing that he was still a bit shaky. Keith nodded in response, a small, tense smile on his lips. The brunet held his hand out to the other, who took it with very little hesitation. “Let's leave the mall to get lunch...”

 

The two walked out of the store and through the crowds to the doors. When they got out of the mall, Lance could see how Keith relaxed.

 

“So, you have any idea where you want to eat?” Lance asked as they made their way to the car.

 

Keith shrugged. “I know I don't want something that'll be hard on my stomach,” he said, voice hoarse.

 

“A small diner about twenty minutes away sound good?”

 

“Definitely.”

 

They got to the car and immediately got in and turned the air conditioning on. A moment passed in silence where they looked at each other, letting everything that had just conspired sink in, before the pair burst out laughing. They had no idea why they were laughing, or if there even was a reason. A few minutes of laughing later, Lance put the car in drive and off they went to the diner.

 

☼

 

On the way to the diner, Keith felt lighter than he had felt since... ever. The two made light conversation on the way, and he slowly felt his tension drain away. By the time they were there, he had calmed down completely from the earlier incident.

 

Taking a seat opposite of each other in a booth, they each grabbed a menu. Opening it, Keith couldn't help but feel the tiniest twinge of awkwardness about the whole situation. The two of them were sitting alone in a booth at a diner, about to order lunch. It felt almost like... a date.

 

The realization caused Keith to jolt in his seat. Lance looked up at him, confusion and worry gracing his features.

 

“Is everything alright?” the brunet asked.

 

“Totally fine,” Keith replied. Looking back at his menu, he hoped that his voice hadn't cracked or sounded strange

 

“If you're sure...” Lance mumbled, attention back on his own menu, “You have any idea what you want?”

 

The raven-haired paladin shook his head. “Absolutely none. Really, everything here sounds appealing after months with just Coran's signature food goo,” he stated.

 

“Yeah. Want to just order a sample platter?” the brunet asked, looking at Keith from above his menu.

 

“I don't see how that would be a bad idea.”

 

With that decided, Lance waved over a waitress to take their order. They got a sample platter and two milkshakes, since Keith was against sharing one. The longer this went on, the more he felt like it was supposed to be some kind of weird date, and no matter how much he tried to shake the feeling, it wouldn't go away.

 

While they waited for the food to come, Keith let his mind wander. Did Lance mean for this to be some pseudo-date? Was he simply over-thinking things? He had never really been on a proper date, so he didn't know exactly what it would entail, but from what he got from movies, this was shaping up to be a classic, bona-fide date. It's not that he would mind if Lance meant for it to be a date, but he would have preferred to know what he was getting into when agreeing to go out for lunch.

 

No, he definitely would not mind if Lance saw this as a date. He wouldn't mind being on a date with Lance at all, if he thought about it a bit. Sure, Lance could be annoying, but he was a lot nicer and more considerate than people gave him credit for. Yes, he could be impulsive, almost getting himself killed on numerous occasions, but that impulsiveness had saved missions more times than not. Not to mention that he was definitely a lot smarter than people gave him credit for. Like, had Lance not stopped him while on the Balmera, he would have ended up hurting it more. Somehow Lance had come up with a good plan very quickly in order to get them out of the sticky situation, without doing any more damage to the large creature.

 

“Keith? You alright there, buddy? You're kinda spaced out,” Lance asked, snapping Keith out of his train of thought.

 

He could feel the blush rising on his face at being caught red-handed spacing out. He was thankful the mind meld only worked when they had their helmets or practice headpieces on. “What? Yeah, no, I'm fine. Nothing to worry about, just... lost focus I guess,” Keith stammered out. He knew that that had had nothing to help his case in it.

 

“Are you sure? You're really red right now; do you have a fever?” Lance reached over the table and pressed his wrist against Keith's forehead, worsening the blush. “Man, you're really burning up, are you sure you didn't catch a cold or something?”

 

Grabbing Lance's hand and moving it off his face, Keith just gave Lance a glare. He was thankfully saved from replying as their food and milkshakes arrived.

 

Lance, as Keith expected, immediately started into the food. It didn't take too long for the awkwardness of before to dissipate, the two fighting over the sparse amount of mozzarella sticks that were on the platter. When Keith dipped a fry into his milkshake, Lance gave him the most disgusted look.

 

“What are you, pregnant?” Lance asked.

 

“Um, rude? This tastes good, and a lot of people will agree with me on that,” Keith retorted, waving a half a fry at the other.

 

“It's weird, dude. Then again...”

 

“If you say anything about me being socially inept I will not hesitate to spill this entire platter on you.”

 

Lance took a sip of his milkshake, looking away from Keith.

 

“I knew it.”

 

“Well, it's true! You've barely gotten out there. You've barely lived!” Lance exclaimed, slamming his milkshake onto the table.

 

“I've barely lived?” Keith asked incredulously, “Lance we both have fought aliens. I fought the Galra commander head on with Red. You can not say that I've barely lived.”

 

Lance sighed and rolled his eyes. “I mean socially. You barely have gotten to do anything that a normal teenager has,” he explained, leaning on the table. “Honestly though, it's ridiculous, man. Have you even been to a party?”

 

Keith just gave him a look that portrayed how he felt about parties.

 

“Alright, so you're not one for parties, but still! You haven't had a chance to be a normal teenager, and that's kinda sad.”

 

“What can we do about it though? We're the defenders of the universe, it's not like we get much down time.”

 

“But we have down time for now. This week is going to be the best week of your life, alright? I'm going to make sure of it,” Lance promised.

 

☼

 

Once they two had finished lunch, they went and sat in the car, neither sure what to do at this point.

 

“Alright, going back to the mall is definitely not going to happen, but we can't just have you wear my clothes for the rest of the week. Let me think of some places that wouldn't be very crowded before we do anything, alright?” Lance said, leaning his seat back a bit.

 

Keith gave a non-committal grunt before turning to look out the window. It was odd, being back on Earth. He'd never known why but it always did feel weird, being on the busy planet. It could just be the fact that he wasn't big on social interactions, and that's essentially what ran society, but it felt... deeper than that. It never felt right, hearing people talk about their families, traditions, travels, work, friends, and pretty much everything that made a normal human. He had always felt oddly disconnected with society as a whole, so he decided that he would try to stay out of the majority of social situations. Sadly, that ended up backfiring once in the Garrison, and even more so when he found himself on a team with six very social people.

 

“How about we go to- Keith? You're spacing out again.” Lance spoke up, tapping Keith on the shoulder to get his attention. “Are you sure you're okay, man? You've been kinda out of it all day.”

 

Keith shook his head. “Sorry. I've just been thinking a bit too much. What were you saying though?” he said, turning his attention back to Lance.

 

“I was going to suggest that we just go to this little shop in the older part of downtown. Not many people go there, just because it's small and looks a bit drab,” Lance replied, fixing his seat so he could drive. “I mean, if you want to that is. We could just go to a Walmart or something if you would rather do that.”

 

“Walmart seems like it's going to be busy,” Keith said simply.

 

“Little store in old downtown it is,” Lance concluded, putting his belt on and putting the car in reverse.

 

“How far is it?” Keith asked, once they were on the road.

 

“Only about ten minutes away this time,” the brunet answered, “So not too long. It'll seem like nothing.”

 

Lance was right about that. With light conversation, the time flew by for them, and before Keith could think too much about where they were even going, Lance was pulling into a parking spot.

 

“We're already here?” he questioned, getting a light chuckle in response.

 

“I told you it would seem like nothing.”

 

Getting out of the car, Lance led them to the small store. Upon entering, Keith realized why Lance had mentioned this place. It may have been small, but the selection of clothes was anything but. Racks of nearly every colour shirt lined one wall, while the other had pants of pretty much every style. The middle area was devoted to racks of shorts and jeans, and the back wall had the cash on one side and a door that had a sign that said “Changing Rooms” above it. And best of all: the store was void of any other customers.

 

The two glanced at each other with matching devilish grins before taking off down opposite rows of clothes.

 

☼

 

Laughing so hard they could barely stand, the two left the store with a few bags of clothing. The selection ending up being for both of them somehow, though neither minded it.

 

Keith had gotten a few more tee-shirts in varying shades of grey and red, as well as a couple more pairs of jeans. Much to Lance's discontent, all of those had been grey and black. Neither could say that it hadn't been fun, though.

 

Making their way to the car, they tossed the bags into the back before climbing into their respective seats in the front.

 

“Even though half of your new wardrobe ended up being black, I'd say that we got a good selection,” Lance chuckled.

 

“At least yours has more than just various shades of blue,” Keith teased back, shoving his shoulder playfully.

 

With a shrug, Lance turned the car on, and put it in reverse. “What time is it by the way?” he asked once they were on the road.

 

Quickly checking his phone, Keith nearly choked. “It's nearly eight,” he said with a disbelieving laugh.

 

“Shit...” Lance mumbled. “Would you mind staying in a motel for a night...?”

 

“Lance, how far are we from your house?”

 

“Like... three and a half hours?”

 

This time, Keith actually did choke. “How the hell did we end up three and a half hours away from your house?”

 

“I... don't know? I guess the mall was a lot farther away than I thought... That or I drove to the wrong mall damn it!” Lance exclaimed, slapped the steering wheel in irritation.

 

“The wrong mall? Explain how you drive three hours to the wrong mall!” Keith nearly shrieked.

 

“It's 'cause Theo and I used to go on drives to the next town over, and it's kind of become a habit to just go on the drive without thinking,” Lance explained, “Sorry about that. I doubt that you wanted to sleep in a motel on your second night back on Earth...”

 

Keith shrugged. “It's not what I really imagined, but I'm not that averse to it, you know?” he said simply.

 

Lance nodded in response. “I'll just... get us a room at the next motel, alright?” he said nervously.

 

With a quiet affirmation, Keith went to looking out the window. It was only a couple minutes until they were pulling into a spot at a motel.

 

Keith followed Lance out of the car and to the motel office. He wasn't exactly paying attention to whatever was being said, but Lance taking the key and sighing heavily brought his focus back.

 

“What's up?” he asked as they walked to their room.

 

“What's up is that the only rooms they have available right now are ones with only one bed, so we're stuck sharing again,” Lance sighed.

 

Keith shrugged. “We would have been sharing if we were at your place, so it's not really a bother,” he said.

 

With a shrug, Lance unlocked the door to the motel room. “I guess so.”

 

Stepping into the room, Keith's eyebrows raised. It was kind of rustic, the room design. The walls were wooden panels on the bottom half, and a strange cream, flowery wallpaper on the top half. The floors were beige apartment-grade wallpaper, and they looked to be stained in a couple spots near the wall. The bed matched the walls with a dark wood frame, and vintage flowered covers. A small kitchenette was along the wall opposite of the door, and a small hallway next to it led to what was probably the bathroom.

 

“I guess it could be worse,” Lance commented, “Not exactly five star, but doable.”

 

“You've been to a five-star hotel?” Keith asked, tossing the bags onto the bed, and taking off his shoes.

 

Lance nodded. “Yeah. It was only once, but it was fucking awesome. Full room service, mini fridge, full access to all of the accommodations that the hotel had to offer...” he let out a chuckle, “That was when Theo and Isabella got married. Since they were having the ceremony at the hotel, the whole family got the perks.”

 

Keith blinked a few times, a bit awed at the whole thing. “That's... really awesome,” he said quietly. “I'm kinda jealous.”

 

Lance turned to look at him from where he was fixing the curtains. “Well, maybe someday we can go to one.”

 

Keith froze where he was. Was Lance saying what he thought he was saying? “Lance...” he started.

 

“I mean, if the rest of the team is fine with it, when we get back from saving the universe, we could probably all go to one to celebrate,” Lance continued, walking to the bed and grabbing his bag.

 

Deflating a bit, Keith grabbed his own bag and looked through it, realizing that he didn't have any pyjamas.

 

“You hungry?” Lance asked, his phone out. “I was going to order some pizza.”

 

“As long as there's nothing weird on it, order whatever,” Keith mumbled, wrinkling his nose at the thought of sleeping in only boxers and a tee-shirt.

 

“What do you consider weird for pizza?” Lance questioned.

 

“Anchovies, broccoli, carrots, things that generally just sound weird to be on pizza.”

 

“... Pepperoni and bacon pizza sound good?”

 

“Hell yes.”

 

With that, Lance dialed up the pizza place and left the room, giving Keith privacy. Looking at the closed door, he let out a sigh. Of course he had meant the team. Grabbing some clothes to change into, he made his way to the bathroom. Closing the door with his foot, he looked at himself in the mirror. He wasn't sure what, but something looked... different than usual.

 

Getting closer to the mirror, Keith cautiously opened his mouth and raised his lips so he could see his teeth. Seeing them, his eyes widened. His canines were a lot sharper than he remembered; they were also longer. Closing his mouth and covering it with his hand, he stumbled back against the door, sliding down to the floor.

 

He could tell that he was shaking. Why the hell did this have to happen now of all times? The hand that wasn't covering his mouth was clutching tightly to his shirt. With difficulty, he got up and went back to look in the mirror. Baring his teeth-turned-fangs at his reflection, he focused on trying to get them to go back to normal, to no avail.

 

With a sigh, Keith shook his head and went and changed into his sleep clothes. It wasn't very obvious; you couldn't tell that his teeth were now fangs unless you were looking for it, or payed super-attention to small details, so there wasn't anything to worry about until he encountered Pidge.

 

Washing his face, he jumped slightly at the knock on the bathroom door.

 

“You almost done in there?” Lance asked from the other side.

 

“Y-yeah I'll be out in a second,” Keith stuttered a bit, taking a deep breath as he grabbed his dirty clothes under his arm.

 

When he opened the door to see Lance waiting, leaning against the wall, he nodded nervously.

 

“Hey, Keith are you okay?” Lance asked as he watched him walk over to the bed and sit on the edge. “You seem... kinda shaky right now.”

 

Tensing up, Keith looked over to where Lance was standing, looking concerned. He didn't want to open his mouth to answer him, so he just stared for a minute. With no answer, Lance walked over to Keith and sat down next to him. He jolted when Lance put a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Seriously, are you okay? You don't seem to be doing the best,” Lance said, a gentle expression on his face. “If you don't want to stay here overnight then we can drive back to my place. It's really no problem.”

 

Keith shook his head, trying to decide if he should tell Lance what was wrong. Before he could decide though, there was a knock at the door.

 

“I'll be right back, that's probably just the pizza,” Lance said, squeezing Keith's shoulder comfortingly as he got up.

 

Keith waited until Lance was back, deciding to trust him with what he had just discovered. When Lance sat back down beside him, he looked over at him.

 

“So, what's going on, man? If it's not the strange place, then what's up?” Lance asked.

 

“This is what's up,” Keith said, showing Lance his teeth.

 

Lance's eyes widened at the sight. “That's kinda cool,” he said, tilting his head and trying to see better.

 

“What...? You mean you're not freaked out by this?” Keith asked, taken aback.

 

“Why would I be freaked out by your teeth changing? I mean, it's a little bit concerning since there isn't really any clear reason, but it's mostly cool,” Lance explained. “Now, how about pizza and shitty late-night sitcoms?”

 

Keith stared at Lance for a few moments, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. He was trying to let this sink in, but it wasn't working. Lance... wasn't weirded out by the change?

 

“Keith, buddy? You still there?” Lance asked, waving his hand in front of his face.

 

Blinking out of his slight trance, Keith nodded. “Yeah, yeah I'm here.”

 

“Great, then let's eat some greasy food and watch shows that are so not funny that they are,” Lance chuckled, opening the pizza box on his lap.

 

Both of them were nearly drooling at the smell of the food, and when they each took a bite of it, they let out a small noise of content. Looking at each other in surprise for a moment, they started laughing. Lance turned the TV on and tuned it to some crappy reality show. Time flew by as they joked and ate and watched the various shows that came on. By the time the pizza was done, they were both nearly falling asleep where they sat.

 

Lance folded the empty box up and put it in the recycling bin next to the door as Keith climbed into the bed. The brunet turned the light out and climbed into the bed beside him, cuddling up close.

 

“Lance...?” Keith questioned slightly.

 

“We're both sleep cuddlers, Keith. It's kind of going to happen anyways,” Lance said simply.

 

Keith shrugged before moving closer as well, one arm tucked under his head as the other draped over Lance's waist. “I guess,” he mumbled tiredly as they tucked closer to each other.

 

“Night,” Lance whispered, his breathing evening out quickly after that.

 

“Night...” Keith replied, knowing Lance was asleep already. “Sweet dreams...” he added, voice barely even a whisper as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to check out my tumblr [@keithspeaks](keithspeaks.tumblr.com) if you want. I post a shit ton of voltron as well as some of my own art.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M STILL ALIVE. I AM SO SORRY FOR HOW LONG THIS TOOK BUT IT'S WAY LONGER THAN THE OTHER TWO CHAPTERS SO I HOPE THAT MAKES UP FOR IT.

When Keith woke up to fingers carding through his hair, he really didn't mind it as much as he thought he would. When he remembered that it was Lance who was probably playing with his hair, on the other hand, he felt his heart rate quicken.

 

Opening his eyes a crack, he was greeted by a view of Lance's navy blue pyjama shirt.

 

Suddenly, Keith's head was spinning, overwhelmed by how close Lance was. He was completely enveloped by him. His smell was all around him, and Keith couldn't decide if it was foreign and strange or warm and comforting. He was overly aware of how Lance's arms were around his waist and tucked behind his head. He could feel how they were breathing in sync, and how their legs tangled together.

 

Keith had to bite his lip to stop the small sob from escaping his throat. Carefully, he pushed himself away from Lance and got out of bed. He grabbed a change of clothes from his bag and went to the washroom to change and get a hold of his emotions.

 

Splashing his face at the sink, he tried to calm himself down. He had almost gotten his breathing back to a normal rate when he caught a glimpse of his fangs again and stumbled backwards into the door, rattling it in its frame.

 

Covering his mouth, he carefully walked back to the mirror, the events of the previous evening coming back to him. He decided to do a full check of his face and neck area.

 

For a while, there was nothing that he could see. That is, until he glimpsed at the back of his neck. Letting out a strangled scream, he shoved himself away from the sink, crashing into the door again. He slammed his eyes shut and took deep breaths, trying to calm himself.

 

“Keith? Is everything okay?” Lance's voice said from the other side of the door, a hint of panic in his voice. “I heard a scream and then a crash. Are you okay? Is it alright for me to come in?”

 

Crawling away from the door, Keith moved to the corner of the room between the sink and the bathtub, tucking himself into a small ball. Whatever Lance got out of a couple more thuds and shuffling, it apparently was affirmation that he could enter the bathroom.

 

When the door slowly opened, Keith hid his face in his knees, not wanting to see Lance quiet yet.

 

“Hey, buddy, is everything alright? Are you okay?” Lance asked, kneeling down next to him. “I need you to talk to me, Keith. I can't help you through whatever this is if you don't talk.”

 

For a few minutes, the two sat in silence. Lance rubbed his back in soothingly until he was able to talk. Once calm and coherent, Keith let out a shaky sigh. He didn't shake Lance's hand off quite yet.

 

“You able to talk yet?” Lance asked quietly. “If not, that's fine.”

 

Keith shook his head. “No, it's fine.” He winced at how rough his voice sounded. “I... I can talk now.”

 

“Want to go somewhere more comfortable than the bathroom floor?” Lance asked, arm around Keith's shoulders, and hand lightly squeezing his bicep.

 

Quietly, Keith nodded, standing with shaky legs. He was leaning heavily on Lance as they walked back to the main part of the motel room. Lance sat down next to him on the bed and continued to gently rub his back. Keith appreciated how Lance wasn't pressing him to talk yet, even though he said he could.

 

“If you don't want to talk about it right now, that's fine,” Lance said quietly, still rubbing Keith's back.

 

Shocked, Keith looked up at him. “Really?” he asked, confused.

 

“Well, yeah,” Lance said. “If you're uncomfortable talking about whatever it is, you don't have to. I do need you to tell me what I can do to help you, though.”

 

Keith felt his face heat up ad he tucked his knees to his chest. “Just... stay like this?” he mumbled into his knees.

 

A moment of silence passed before Lance answered. “Alright,” he said simply. “Though it would be more comfortable to lay down. It's only seven, so you could just try to sleep again.”

 

Keith groaned. Why was it so early?

 

“You didn't know it was only seven, did you?” Lance asked.

 

“No,” Keith grumbled, laying down, fully dressed.

 

Lance sighed and shook his head, laying down beside him. “I have a feeling that you're not going to be sleeping easily after whatever got you worked up?” he guessed.

 

Keith shook his head and sat back up. “Definitely not. Is breakfast included in the stay?” he asked.

 

Rolling over in a somersault, Lance got up and grabbed the room key off the bedside table. “Yeah. Want to get something to eat?”

 

Nodding, Keith walked over to the door and opened it for Lance, who walked through thanking him as he did so. Together, they walked over to the dining room. On tables lining three of the four walls, there were loaves of bread, toasters, packs of jam, butter, coffee makers and cups, sugar containers and milk cartons, juice boxes, English muffins, bagels, granola bars, and even more. Because of the early hour, there weren't many people there, so the pair had practically free reign over everything there.

 

Keith made a bee-line towards the coffee maker, not checking to see where Lance was going. He grabbed a paper cup and checked which machine wasn't decaf, only to be thoroughly disappointed. Putting the cup back, he dragged himself to the table where Lance was.

 

“Decaf only?” he asked, not looking away from the toaster.

 

“Yeah,” Keith grumbled, taking a couple of granola bars from a basket next to the jam packets.

 

“We can stop at a Starbucks or something on the drive back.”

 

“As long as I get coffee I'll be content.”

 

With that comment, the toaster popped, surprising Keith. Lance snickered, taking a paper plate and carefully taking the toast out. Not wanting to be the subject of ridicule, Keith walked over to a table set up in the centre of the room and sat down to eat. It wasn't long before Lance sat down across from him, placing a cold box of orange juice on the table in front of him.

 

“Drink this before you have coffee. I don't exactly want to see you hyped on only caffeine,” he said, leaning back and taking a bite out of his toast.

 

Keith huffed. “Trust me there won't be much hype from me after getting up at this time,” he mumbled, taking the juice box anyway. Popping the straw out of its wrapping and into the box, he sipped at it tiredly.

 

The two of them ate in a comfortable silence for a while. After they had finished, Lance piped up, “So when do you think we should head back?”

 

“If it's going to take us a while, I say we should probably head out now so we can take our time if we want,” Keith shrugged.

 

Lance nodded in thought. “You haven't been around here, right? What am I thinking, of course you haven't. Let's do a tour day!” he rambles for a minute, mostly to himself, before blurting an idea at Keith.

 

Keith blinked a few times, a little bit surprised at the excited outburst, before giving a half-grin and shrugging again. “I'm for it,” he answered, sipping at the juice.

 

Watching Lance's reaction, Keith had to refrain from grinning too widely. It was adorable watching him bounce in his seat and talk wildly about all the places they were going to go on the way back, and how they were going to be taking the long way. He felt a sort of... warmth spreading through his chest at the image in front of him.

 

A snap in his face brought him back to reality.

 

“You alright there, Keith?” Lance said, looking a bit worried. “You seemed to be a bit spaced out there for a minute. Did you even hear what I was saying?”

 

Keith nodded quickly. “Yeah I was listen, I'm just too tired to visually focus on anything right now,” he said, crushing the empty juice box.

 

“Ah, alright. Want to go grab our stuff from the motel room while I check out? You can just put the bags in the car then come to the front desk so we can give back the key,” the brunet said, handing Keith the key.

 

Taking it with a nod, Keith grabbed his granola bars and went back to their room. Looking around, Keith was almost tempted to strip the bedding for the employees, but decided against it. He really wanted to just go. It totally wasn't because he was getting to go touring with Lance. He quickly grabbed their bags and made sure he had the key for the room before exiting the room and going to the main office to see Lance shamelessly flirting with the poor girl behind the counter.

 

“Stop harassing her, Lance, and come get your bag,” Keith called out from the door, holding up one of the bags as well as the room key.

 

Lance shot a last wink at the young lady, who looked both distraught and flattered, and grabbed his things. He took the key and slid it to her with a flirty smile. Having enough of his terrible flirting, Keith walked over to him with an eye roll and dragged him out the door to the car.

 

“What was that for? She was totally about to ask for my number!” Lance cried, opening his door.

 

Keith just sighed and shook his head at his desperation. “No, she really wasn't. Use your eyes,” he grumbled once they were pulling out of the parking spot.

 

The brunet simply stuck his tongue out at him, earning another sigh and head shake.

 

“So, where are we headed?” Keith asked as they pulled onto the nearest eastward-bound on-ramp for the interstate.

 

“There's this little town on the way back, and it has a few trails where you can feed the birds, or sit by the river and put your feet in the water,” Lance grinned, shooting a quick glance at Keith in the passenger seat.

 

Grinning back, Keith tried to ignore the way his heart fluttered slightly at the small look. He knew it was just a simple friendly gesture, but for some reason he wanted it to be something more. Shaking his head, he mentally scolded himself for that thought. He and Lance were just friends, nothing more, maybe less. Scratch that “less” part. He knew for a fact that they were at least beginning to become close friends. They had talked late into the night about stuff that he knew they wouldn't talk about with many other people, and had shared a bed numerous times in the last two or three days.

 

They were getting closer, and Keith was a little bit afraid. It wasn't often he got close to people, particularly those who he'd fought with multiple times a day for the last six months or so. It was new, slowly falling into a comfortable relationship with someone. It was scary, all these new thoughts and feelings that were budding, and he felt would soon be blooming, inside him. He was scared, yes, but there was something else there as well. The only thing that he could classify it as was... excitement. He was excited and curious about these new things. He wanted to see what would happen, even if it ended badly. He was looking forward to growing to trust others more, to enjoy being around people more, to maybe even being alright with someone being physically close to him, possibly in even more ways than one.

 

It was an emotional roller coaster but he loved every second of it. It was terrifying and exciting and something completely new and beautiful, and he couldn't stop smiling whenever he thought about it.

 

“You alright there, buddy?” Lance asked, snapping Keith out of his daze. “It certainly looks like you're more than okay, since you've got a huge goofy grin on your face, but I thought that I'd ask since that's not an expression you have on much.”

 

Keith blinked a few times, expression going from happy, to blank confusion, to mildly horrified at being caught. “Y-yeah,” he stuttered out, feeling his cheeks flush.

 

In order to quell some of his embarrassment, he turned and looked out the passenger side window, deliberately away from Lance and his curious-yet-worried eyes.

 

Keith couldn't see it, but Lance had one of the softest expressions on his face after he glanced at him, face red. That's how it always was with them though. One was always giving the other some of the most tender looks, but the other never saw it, too caught up in their own blind pining to notice how much they actually cared for one another. Those around them always saw it, and tried to get them to see as well, but by the time one realized what the others actions could have meant, it was too late and they weren't talking because of a stupid, small argument or miscommunication.

 

It was exhausting for everyone involved.

 

From then until they reached their destination, the car was silent except for the quiet radio playing music. Nothing was tense, nothing was awkward. They were completely comfortable with each other and just being as they drove. Keith loved it. It didn't feel forced or stiff like it had when they had first arrived back at earth, and Keith wanted to relish in the moments as they passed. He wanted to soak it all in and savour the time that they had alone, no one trying to force them to talk or to “get along”.

 

That was something as well. The pair did get along, in their own weird way, even before this bonding trip. They argued, but that was because they didn't want the other to see them as weak, even though neither actually thought that in the first place. They wanted to prove themselves worthy of the others time, although it wasn't needed. It was their own self-doubt that made them act up like that, but when they felt confident, some of their best moments came through, Keith noticed. When they had all worked together to get the Red lion from Zarkon's fleets, when Keith had gotten Lance's lion back from Nyma and Rolo, and when the two of them had worked together to take down Sendak. All these times that were important for both the two of them, and the team as a whole, the two of them outshone all of their “fights” and bickering with perfectly working together like a well-oiled machine.

 

Keith wanted more moments like that, he realized. He wanted the two of them to be seen as the best pair in their team. He wanted to fight the Galra back-to-back with Lance, and to come out victorious, even if worn and weary. These things definitely weren't impossible, if he thought back to their track record of successful teamwork activities, but with everyone nagging on them like they did in the beginning, it certainly was barely possible. They couldn't seem to get along if forced, or even if it was brought attention to afterwards.

 

“We're here,” Lance commented, snapping Keith out of his trance for the second time in a half an hour.

 

Stepping out of the car, Keith looked around in slight amazement. He always loved nature, but it was very bleak in the desert. He didn't often get to enjoy large trees, and even rarer was the changing leaves of fall. It was barely started, but it gave the trees an almost airbrushed look. Keith loved it and felt a small smile tug at the corners of his lips the more he looked.

 

“I told you it was nice,” Lance commented, walking up beside him with a bag of sunflower seeds in his hands. Seeing Keith's odd look at the bag, he explained, “It's so we can feed the birds. I mentioned that when talking about the trails, right?”

 

“Yeah, I just forgot for a minute there,” Keith answers, looking back at the trees and the patterns the sun and shade made on the ground. “I really like fall, the colours are nice.”

 

“Yeah. It feels like everything is brighter, somehow,” Lance added, opening the bag of seed. “Do you want some to feed the birds?”

 

Keith nodded, a little bit of anxiety fluttering to life in his stomach. He wasn't very good with animals he wasn't familiar with, especially wild animals. There was also the fact that he had never fed birds on a trail before. Staring down at the sunflower seeds in his hand, he blinked a few times in confusion.

 

“Have you never fed birds before?” Lance asked, pouring some of the seeds into his own hand and tucking the bag into a pack that was slung over his shoulder. When Keith shook his head, Lance chuckled a bit and grinned at him. “It's simple. I'll show you how.”

 

Taking the lead, Lance began to walk into the forest, following the path, Keith not far behind. Once they were a decent way in, Lance stopped and pointed upwards. Squinting a bit, Keith realized he could see some small birds fluttering in the upper branches of the trees.

 

“Watch this,” Lance said, drawing his attention back to ground level. The brunet whistled little chirps that mimicked the birds' and lifted his open palm up towards the branches. A few moments passed where nothing happened, but then a couple little chickadees fluttered down to nearby branches and then to Lance's hand. One at a time they flew over and picked up a seed before flying back to upper branches.

 

Keith was speechless. He found it so neat, the way that Lance, always-moving Lance, was able to stay so still in order for the birds to be comfortable with landing in his hand.

 

“Do you wanna try?” Lance asked, closing his palm and turning to look at Keith. “You have to stay really still for them if you do try though.”

 

Nodding, Keith took a deep breath and turned to face the trees, holding his open palm up to the branches like Lance had done and waited for the birds to land. It took a little bit, but a few birds peered at him from the lower branches before flitting to land on his hand and carefully select a seed from the small pile in his palm. When the few birds had finished this, Keith turned to Lance with a wide grin on his face.

 

“They're so tiny,” Keith said, looking between the birds and Lance. “I mean, I knew they were small before but I really wasn't expecting them to feel that small and delicate. It was kinda freaky.”

 

Lance chuckled, “Yeah, they're super fragile. My brother used to catch them in his hands really carefully. If he held their feet the wrong way, their legs would break, so he was really gentle and only did it once or twice a year.”

 

“That's... really neat, actually. Do you think... I could maybe see that sometime?” Keith asked tentatively.

 

“If we can convince him before we go back then definitely,” Lance grins, “Wanna keep walking? I'm pretty sure there's a pond with a dock that you can feed geese off further down the trail.”

 

Nodding, Keith closes his palm and walks with Lance. He wants to talk, but doesn't know what to say. He wants to tell Lance about why he was getting lost in thought in the car earlier, but he knows that he would never be able to actually put it into words. He wants to talk to break the silence, but there's no need to break the silence. Everything is comfortable and relaxed between them at long last, and he loves it yet he hates it because he hates silence of any kind if there's something bothering him. There was definitely something bothering him at this moment.

 

And it was everything about Lance and how hard he's fallen for him.

 

He fidgeted as he walked, hands unable to keep still. In revival of an old habit, he began to snap and unsnap the button on the glove of his seed-filled hand.

 

“Is everything alright?” Lance asked, for what was probably the umpteenth time in the last few days.

 

“Yeah, I just have a lot of pent-up energy,” he mumbled in response.

 

“I'd suggest a race to the dock but we're almost there,” Lance shrugged.

 

Keith shrugged. “I mean, we could easily still do a short race,” he said simply before taking off down the path, Lance giving an indignant cry from behind him.

 

This helped. Running freely, the wind blowing past him, his feet hitting the hard ground, it all was familiar. Friendly competition was familiar. It was comforting, having this one certainty between he and Lance. He knew that no matter what happened between them, there would always be some sort of rivalry between the pair. He let out an exuberant laugh as he ran, head tossing back as he skidded to a stop at the edge of the dock.

 

Lance showed up panting and bent over his knees a few moments later. “You... have inhuman pace,” he heaved

 

“You're just out of shape,” Keith laughed.

 

“I guess that means I've got to start working out on the training deck,” Lance grinned up at him, “I bet that after a few sessions I'll be able to kick your butt.”

 

“Sure thing Lancelot, it's not like I've been training every day since we found out about the training deck that we weren't fighting Zarkon,” he teased, hands on his hips.

 

Lance froze momentarily, processing what Keith had just said. “Did you just call me Lancelot? Like the knight?” he asked, standing up straight and tilting his head with a playful grin on his face.

 

Keith shrugged, “Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Does it really matter?”

 

“It does because if you did it means I get to give you a dorky nickname as well,” Lance grinned at him, a devilish glint in his eyes.

 

“In that case I most definitely did not call you Lancelot.”

 

“That means that you most definitely did call me Lancelot.”

 

“Damn it.”

 

Lance laughed brightly at that. He slung an arm over Keith's shoulders and grinned at him even wider, if that were even possible. Keith could feel his face heating up and a small grin spread across his own lips. He knew he was totally screwed over at this point, and he was more than willing to dive in head first without a care as to how things would end if it meant he could spend more time like this with Lance.

 

“Want to see if there are any ducks or geese still hanging around?” Lance asked, arm still over Keith's shoulders.

 

Keith nodded, waiting to see if Lance was going to let go of him or not. When he didn't and just started walking, dragging Keith beside him, Keith took that as a good sign. The pair walked down the dock, pressed close to each other, until the end. The only reason they separated, Keith noticed, was Lance getting excited when he saw that there were still ducks in the water and ran ahead to try to feed them.

 

Leaning against the railing, Keith watched as Lance gently tried to coax the ducks over to him so that he could feed them from his hand. It was an endearing sight. He listened closely as Lance quietly - yet excitedly – explained how he and Theo used to do this all the time when he was younger, and how he had learned all the little tricks from him.

 

“You and your brother were really close, weren't you?” Keith asked, still watching from afar.

 

Sitting back on his haunches, Lance nodded. “Yeah, before I left for the Garrison, though, we got into a pretty big fight. I'm surprised that he hasn't brought it up yet actually,” he explained, not looking at Keith.

 

“It's probably because he was worried when you literally disappeared off the face of the world without a trace,” he replied bluntly.

 

Lance let out a humourless laugh. “Probably, but it doesn't change the fact that he's only being nice to you because it's required of him since you're a guest,” he mumbled.

 

At that, Keith moved and sat down next to Lance. “Do you mind if I ask what the fight was about...?” he asked tentatively.

 

A couple of moments passed where Lance said nothing, not even answering Keith's question with a nod or head shake. “It... I came out to him and he didn't take it very well. He became bitter towards me in the few days leading up to the big fight. The day of... he said something that was really painful for fourteen year old me, and still is to seventeen year old me. I'm not going to repeat it, mostly because I can't, but also because I know that it may hit you hard too,” he explained, eyes shut tight and a pained expression on his features. “He pretty much totally shut me out that day. The one person I trusted and looked up to to be a good role model betrayed me with a few words.

 

“I left the house, just saying that I was going for a walk. It was pouring rain and I didn't bother bringing an umbrella. I was already soaked after the first block, but I didn't care. I walked around the neighbourhood for at least an hour and a half, just walking. I tried to get as far as I could and I seriously considered walking to Hunk's place in the next town over just because I felt welcome there.

 

“Eventually my legs were too cold to walk for very much longer so I just went to the park near my place – the one I took you too the other day? That one – and just sat there and let it out. I just sat under a barely-leafy tree and cried. My mother was freaking out. She had no idea where I was, or what even really happened, and Isabella wasn't even fucking useful in trying to help find me when my mother demanded her to help.

 

“When I finally cried myself out, I trudged back home and went down to my room. At the time I didn't have a lock on my door, so I couldn't do anything to keep them out. I didn't even have the energy at the time to drag myself up onto my bed, I just collapsed in front of it and starting heaving again. I got a few minutes in before my mother practically burst into the room and hugged me, rambling on about how worried she was about me and how much she loved me...

 

“I didn't see Theo for a few days after that. My mother actually took me out of the house for a couple nights and we stayed in the same motel that we were in last night. The day before I left for the Garrison though, a few weeks after the whole incident, Theo came up to me and gave me this huge hug and tried to apologize for what he has said. I know it may sound cruel, but... I turned down his apology. In the few holidays that I went home, he and I have mended our relationship a little, but it's still pretty tense,” Lance finished, seeming very close to crying.

 

Keith, who had been sitting tense and silent through all of Lance's story, felt a lump in his throat, and tears well up in his eyes. Without a word, he practically dove at Lance, wrapping him in a vice-like hug.

 

“I am so sorry that you had to go through that...” he mumbled, face pressed into Lance's shoulder in order to hide the few tears pricking at his eyes, “It also definitely was not cruel to turn down his apology after he hurt you like that.”

 

Keith, starting to feel awkward with being the only one hugging in this situation, was about to pull away before Lance quickly hugged him back twice as tightly. Very faintly, Keith heard him crying as he held him tightly. The faint crying slowly turned into heartbroken sobs, until Lance was shaking and pretty much wailing into Keith's shoulder. The entire time this was happening, Keith continued to gently rub small circles into his back, not in order to calm him down, but to simply remind him that he was still there.

 

When Lance had gotten everything out of his system, Keith slowly let go of him from the hug, but kept his hands on Lance's shoulders. “Lance, listen to me,” he said simply, “Whatever your brother said that hurt you that deeply... he was wrong. I'm so proud of you for continuing to be so unapologetically unique and you, even after getting hurt that deeply, and I'm... honoured that you felt comfortable enough to share that with me.”

 

Those words sent Lance into another bout of tears, Keith giving him the gentlest smile he was capable of.

 

Lance managed to calm himself down a few minutes later, wiping his eyes on his sleeve and giving Keith a gentle, watery smile. “You wanna just head back to my place? We can stop for lunch on the way if you're hungry. I know that I am after that,” he laughed, standing up with a bit of Keith's help.

 

“That sounds good to me,” Keith chuckled back, “After burning that many calories, I'd be surprised if you weren't hungry.”

 

“Crying does burn a lot of calories, doesn't it?” he wondered, tilting his head slightly.

 

“Your tears also help unclog pores, if my knowledge of usually-totally-pointless-facts serves me correctly.”

 

“Well damn, my face is going to shine tomorrow, isn't it.”

 

“Lance, your face shines every morning because of your ridiculously intensive skin care routine, we all notice.”

 

“Then it's working.”

 

The two continued to shoot playful banter at each other on the way back to Lance's car. Of course, they took the long way back by finishing the trail, mostly because Lance continued to insist that Keith needed to feed more than one bird on this outing.

 

By the time they actually got back to the car, it was almost time for meals to be considered late. Both felt a lot lighter than before, and they both seemed to be more open about smiling at the other without any real reason to.

 

Instead of actually stopping at a small diner or anything, they decided to just pick up McDonalds on the way, so they could hopefully make it back to Lance's house in time for dinner.

 

☼

 

They did not, in fact, make it back in time for dinner.

 

Instead of heading right back, as Lance had claimed they would at the trail, they took the scenic route as originally planned. Neither could deny that the ride was relaxing, though, and both had to admit that singing along to Beyoncé at the top of their lungs for a good thirty minutes while driving was fun.

 

When Lance opened the front door and the pair had walked in, both looking like a wind-blown mess and laughing happily about how Beyoncé would always understand them, Ruby hurried up to them in a fuss.

 

“Where have you two boys been?” she demanded, hands on her hips and a motherly glare on her face.

 

Lance and Keith froze, realizing that they hadn't told Lance's mother where they were going the day before. They exchanged a scared glance before Keith pushed Lance under the metaphorical bus. “He kidnapped me on some wild excursion yesterday,” he blurted out, stepping out of his shoes and sliding easily past Lance and Ruby and downstairs to Lance's room.

 

“Thanks a lot for that, Keith!” he heard Lance call out while he ran down the stairs two at a time.

 

Once alone, Keith ran a hand through his hair. He had no idea what he was doing anymore when it came to Lance. He had no idea where they stood with each other. Hell, he was even starting to doubt himself at this point.

 

He made his way to the en-suite, and pulled his hair up. If he had had an elastic, he probably would have tied his hair back to check on the problem that had arisen that morning. Taking a deep breath, he turned his head to look at his neck. He stomach turned when he saw how the purple splotches had spread. It reminded him of a little while ago when he had gotten his hand burnt on the quintessence container and it had turned a strange colour.

 

As much as he tried to convince himself otherwise, he knew of only one creature with vibrant purple skin that could have already spread to Earth in the last ten-thousand years.

 

“Keith? You okay buddy?” Lance's voice called out from the stairs, “My mom was just worried. She did chew me out for not telling her where we were going, though.”

 

“Uh, yeah I'm fine!” Keith called out, letting his hair go and doing his best to recover his neck. “How bad did she chew you out?”

 

“Pretty bad. She slipped into Spanish about half-way through her rant, and I feared for my life for a little bit, but she ended up just hugging me and sending me down here with a bag of chips for us to split,” he replied, voice now in the main room.

 

“Nice,” Keith said, opening the door of the bathroom.

 

Lance was lounging in one of the beanbags on the floor, and he leaned back in it to look at Keith. He had a big goofy grin on his face and was holding a bag of chips in the air for Keith to see. “Why didn't you tell anyone that you can actually sing really well, by the way?” he asked, sitting up properly when Keith took to the seat next to him.

 

“I guess I just never really thought much about it.” Keith shrugged.

 

“So you can do an epic Beyoncé impersonation, but it never really crossed your mind that you could be a good singer,” Lance said incredulously.

 

“I don't think I've ever actually sung Beyoncé until today. I mean, I've definitely listened to her quite a bit in my life, but I've never sung any of her songs at more than a quiet hum until that car ride,” Keith said, mouth full of chips.

 

“What did you sing then?” the other asked, looking around for the T.V remote.

 

“This is gonna sound really fucking cringey, but I listened to a lot of English covers of Japanese songs when I was, like, twelve, and they've definitely stuck to me so hard,” he explained, covering his face a bit.

 

“I definitely don't want to hear that, so are there any other things you memorized?” Lance chuckled, an aha! escaping him after he found the remote.

 

Keith thought for a moment before a song rose in his mind. “Well, there is this one song I memorized when I was younger because of how much I listened to it,” he mumbled, “It was... comforting somehow. I couldn't really relate to it in any other sense than Shiro being pretty much my only family, and it would be years 'til I met him when I found this song. We aren't actually blood related, but he practically adopted me as a younger brother once we got acquainted well with each other.”

 

“Well, what's the song?”

 

“It's 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark' by Death Cab for Cutie.”

 

Lance looked a bit taken aback at that. “Really? I love that song. During the holidays I'd play it on the guitar and pretty much anyone who could hear me would sing along. It became a tradition for my family to sing it any time the holidays rolled around after my grandfather died, kind of like a memoir thing, y'know?” Lance explained, “Actually, if I get my guitar out, would you want to... maybe sing it with me?”

 

Keith hesitated for a moment, knowing that the song meant a lot to both of them, before nodding. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” he said calmly.

 

Flashing a bright grin at Keith, who gave a small smile back, Lance jumped up and ran to his giant closet to fish out his guitar. He began tuning it when he sat down on the floor in front of Keith, and had it done within a few minutes.

 

“You can tune by ear?” Keith asked, looking a bit surprised.

 

“I've been playing this exact guitar since I could form coherent thought, and even before then, my family tuned stuff around me, so yeah, I can tune by ear,” he chuckled, beginning the familiar tune.

 

☼

 

Lance looked down at the guitar in his hands, and focused on playing the right chords. After the intro was done, he nearly stopped again by accident. Keith had begun singing, and even if it was a bit shaky, it was so full of emotion.

 

“ _If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied, illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs. If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks, I'll follow you into the dark_ ,” Keith sang.

 

Glancing up, Lance saw that Keith's eyes were closed, and that he was swaying a bit with the music. He kept playing the chords, trying to focus on anything but how Keith's voice had become steady and smooth, and how it was sending shivers up his spine. He played the rest of the song with no freezing incidents, luckily, but the shivers had stayed.

 

When the song had ended, they both just sat there in silence for a few minutes. Lance looked up from his guitar to see that Keith's eyes were closed tight. Testing waters, he began strumming another tune.

 

“ _They made a statue of us, then put it on a mountain top_ ,” Lance sang quietly, “ _The tourists come and stare at us, blow bubbles with their gum, take photographs of fun... have fun_.”

 

“ _They'll name a city after us, and later say it's all our fault. Then they'll give us a talking to, then they'll give us a talking to_ ,” Keith continued, opening his eyes, but still keeping his gaze down, “ _'Cause they've got years of experience_.”

 

Lance grinned as they sang the song together. He glanced down at his hands occasionally to check the chords he was playing, but kept his gaze up at Keith for the most part. Somewhere in the middle of the song, Keith had glanced up and grinned a bit when he saw the smile Lance had.

 

When that song had ended, Lance began another. He picked up the pace and changed the chords with ease. “ _Oh morning, come bursting in, see the clouds, amen. Lift off this blindfold, let me see again. Bring back the water, let your ships roll in. In my heart, she left a hole_.”

 

Keith didn't pick the next verse up, but there was a strange glint in his eye as Lance took it. Lance gave Keith a look, telling him silently to take the next two verses, which he did with ease.

 

“ _And sing slow it down, through chaos as it swirls. It's us against the world_ ,” Keith sang, easily holding the long note on slow. Lance spaced off during the next verse, in a bit of shock at the fact that Keith was probably eighty-percent lung, since he did most of that verse on one breath. “ _And if we could float away, fly up to the surface and just start again, and lift off before trouble, just erodes us in the rain_.”

 

Lance physically jolted, hearing the high notes that he was supposed to be singing flow easily from Keith. From there on, the two almost were fighting for the verses, Lance letting Keith have most of them because he was laughing gleefully. It had been so long since he had had someone like this in his life. He used to be like this with Theo, but after their fight, they had stopped doing their jam sessions. Calypso couldn't sing worth crap, according to her, and refused to sing for him, and his other siblings were all too young to join him. He would have asked his parents, but they were usually busy and couldn't sit with him for more than one or two songs.

 

When that song had finished, Lance slowed the pace right down. Judging by the confused look on Keith's face, he didn't know the song.

 

“ _Come on, skinny love, just last the year. Pour a little salt, we were never here. My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my. Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer_ ,” he sang, hoping that maybe Keith would pick up on the song. When he didn't Lance continued. “ _Tell my love to wreck it all. Cut out all the ropes and me fall. My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my. Right in the moment, this order's tall_.

 

“ _And I told you to be patient, and I told you to be fine. I told you to be balanced, and I told you to be kind. And in the morning I'll be with you, but it'll be a different kind. And I'll be holding all the tickets, and you'll be owning all the fines,_ ” Lance sang, not seeing that Keith's confused look had flashed to recognition, then to a soft look of awe.

 

He sang the song, letting the words flow effortlessly from his lips. When he had finished, had paused in his playing, shaking his hands out to release the tension.

 

“Do you think I could play something?” Keith asked.

 

“Huh? Yeah, sure,” Lance replied, handing his guitar to Keith, who shifted in order to hold the instrument properly.

 

“I'm not used to playing right-handed,” he admitted, grimacing as he picked up a tune and tried to get used to playing the chords.

 

“You're a lefty?” Lance asked, leaning back and stretching his wrists out.

 

“Nope, ambidextrous, but I played with a left-handed guitar most of my life,” Keith replied, beginning to get the hang of the song.

 

“Neat,” Lance replied simply, waiting for Keith to start singing.

 

He saw Keith take a deep breath and close his eyes, as if he was getting ready to jump off of a diving board. “ _I think that possibly, maybe, I've fallen for you. Yes, there's a chance that I've fallen quite hard over you. I've seen the paths that your eyes wander down, I want to come too. I think that possibly, maybe I'm falling for you_ ,” he sang, and Lance felt his heart stop.

 

He listened carefully as Keith sang, and he could hear the genuine feelings that he was trying to portray. It was almost hypnotizing, the way Keith moved with the music, swaying just a little bit as he played and sang. Before he knew it, the song was over and Keith was handing him his guitar back.

 

Lance opened his mouth to say something, anything, to Keith, but before he could, Keith was getting up and walking over to the bathroom. Even on the other side of the room, the click of the lock was deafening.

 

In the next few seconds, the silence was the only thing louder than the previous click of the lock. The quiet sound of the tap being turned on saved Lance from going deaf in the silence. It wasn't until he felt his chest start to hurt that he realized that he had been holding his breath. He reached his hand to his face and felt tears on his cheeks.

 

Standing up, he put his guitar on the ground and went to his closet to dig out an old hoodie. Giving it a fond smile, he folded it up and put it in a shoe box that was hiding in a shelf under all his hanging clothes. Carrying it out to his bedside table, he pulled out a marker from the top drawer and quickly wrote something on the box lid. He placed it in front of the bathroom door and gave a small smile, before going upstairs.

 

☼

 

Keith splashed his face with water to try to calm himself down. What the hell had he just done? Wasn't he supposed to be the one who was subtle with these kinds of things? If he was, then that was just thrown out the window in favour of letting spontaneity flourish for once.

 

Lance had been crying. That song had made Lance cry. What the hell was he thinking? Keith shook his head in a pathetic attempt to clear his head of those thoughts. Taking a deep breath, he turned off the tap and pushed himself away from the sink. With a shaking hand, he turned the handle and opened the door to see an empty room, and a box with a note scrawled on the lid.

 

Curiously, Keith bent down and picked up the box. Examining the outside, he turned his attention to the short note.

 

“ _Love of mine, someday you will die, but I'll be close behind. I'll follow you into the dark_ ,” Keith read aloud. He was stunned silent for a moment, before a small grin spread on his lips.

 

He opened the box and sitting there was what looked like a well-worn hoodie. Picking up the hoodie, he looked it over. It didn't look like anything particularly special. It was a faded navy blue pullover hoodie with white drawstrings and pictures of sailboats with the words “Cape Cod Mass.” written on it. The bottom of the large pocket was beginning to tear, and Keith poked his finger in the small hole before taking a breath and pulling the old sweater over his head.

 

It had to be at least two sizes too big for him. The sleeves went three or four inches past the tips of his fingers, and the torso part easily covered halfway down his thighs. Pushing the sleeves up to his elbows, Keith shook the hood off his head, accidentally burying his nose in the collar of it. He smiled a bit to himself when he realized that even after what was probably months of not being worn, it still smelled just like Lance.

 

Assuming that Lance had gone upstairs, Keith quickly changed into his pyjamas and pulled the hoodie back on before he went up as well.

 

At the top of the stairs, he nearly tripped over a cat. Calmly, he picked it up and cradled it in his arms before continuing on to find Lance in the kitchen, talking to Calypso. When he saw Keith, he stopped talking and gave him a gentle smile that quickly turned into a look of surprise.

 

“How the hell did you manage to not only find Midnight, but pick her up as well? Most of us can't even touch her as she walks by,” he asked as Keith leaned against the counter next to him.

 

“Your cat is pure white, why the hell is her name Midnight?” is the only thing Keith could think of saying as he looked down at the purring cat in his arms.

 

“Ask Elliot. He named her,” Lance chuckled, looking at the cat with an expression that was equally confused and offended,”And the demon cat is purring! Are you some sort of cat whisperer?”

 

“Most animals in general hate me. I'm as surprised as you are right now.”

 

“Lance, why is he wearing your cape cod hoodie? You never let anyone breathe on that damn thing before now,” Calypso comments, giving Keith a knowing look.

 

“You're the literal Devil, you know that, right?” Lance said, turning to look at Calypso.

 

“Yeah, yeah, the two of you were really obvious before now, you know that right? Now I just have true confirmation with you saying that,” she said before walking off.

 

The two paladins stood there in dead silence for a few moments before glancing at each other and cracking up. Keith accidentally dropped the cat when he started laughing, and got a swipe at his foot when she landed.

 

“Little shit,” he mumbled, “Your cat is actually evil.” He bent down and rubbed at the cut for a second before standing up straight again.

 

“I originally came up here to make popcorn, but then Calypso came up to me and told me she heard the guitar, so I tried to justify it in a way that wouldn't make her suspect anything, but...” Lance trailed off, giving the doorway a slightly irritated glance.

 

“Lance it's almost midnight, why the hell were you about to make popcorn?” Keith asked, hopping up to sit on the counter.

 

Lance glanced at the clock and looked a bit shocked to see that it really was almost midnight. “Oh shit, I didn't even know,” he said, looking back to Keith with a shrug, “Guess were not gonna continue the Star Wars marathon?”

 

Keith chuckled and shook his head. “After the last two chaotic days we've had, I think we should call it an early night,” he said.

 

“Yeah, I think that sounds like a good idea too, if we can't watch Star Wars,” Lance sighed.

 

Hopping off the counter, Keith nervously reached out for Lance's hand to pull him along. Before his shaking hand could grab Lance's though, Lance had grabbed his and pulled him towards the stairs. Keith couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. It was nice, not needing to be the outgoing one, and having someone else pull him along.

 

Downstairs, the usual set up began. Keith climbed into bed and tucked himself against the wall, the lamp on the bedside table being his indication of when Lance was done with his routine. When the dim light behind shining through his eyelids went dark, he knew that Lance was about to climb in next to him.

 

He couldn't help but jolt a little bit when Lance pulled him close right from the get-go.

 

“We're both sleep cuddlers anyways,” he said with a yawn. “We both know it's gonna happen either way.”

 

Keith hummed a bit in agreement, already dozing off. His head was still spinning from the proximity, but it was a good type of spin now.

 

That was the first night that Keith fell asleep first.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Voltron season 2 trailer revived me and got me to fucking finish this piece of crap.
> 
> The songs in the chapter are:
> 
> 1\. I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab for Cutie  
> 2\. Us by Regina Spektor  
> 3\. Us Against the World by Coldplay  
> 4\. Skinny Love by Bon Iver  
> 5\. Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop by Landon Pigg
> 
> I had them on loop variously while writing the last half of the story.
> 
> I've been continuously working on this since July, by the way.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to check my tumblr out if you want! http://keithspeaks.tumblr.com/


End file.
